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For patients with debilitating neurological illnesses or conditions — such as stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and traumatic brain injuries — even the simplest of health care tasks present significant challenges. Mobility and balance issues might mean it’s harder to get to an appointment. Mental impairments might mean it’s more difficult to follow doctor’s recommendations.
Barriers pile up. Needs go unmet.
Allegheny Health Network aims to change all that.
Earlier this month, AHN announced that it’s in the process of building a comprehensive neurosciences hub at Allegheny General Hospital. The five-story facility will include not only all of the diagnostic, medical and surgical services a patient might need, but also social resources, nutritional and cognitive therapy, navigation resources, and other wraparound services that will take the guesswork out of the long-term management of neurological diseases.
“Neurological illnesses, like other chronic illnesses, can require a lifetime of specialized care and supportive services,” explains Dr. Donald Whiting, chief medical officer, AHN, and chair of the AHN Neuroscience Institute. “But too often, patients and families are left to fend for themselves when it comes to searching out those services and navigating the health care system.”
In the video and interview below, Dr. Whiting talks about his vision for the Neuroscience Institute center, why it’s unique, and how it allows patients to live their best, healthiest lives.
My name is Donald Whiting, and I am the chief medical officer and the chair of the Neuroscience Institute at Allegheny Health Network.
The new Neuroscience hub that we’re building here at Allegheny Health Network is unique in the sense that we’re making an integrative neuroscience center. We’re treating every patient like a VIP, helping them live their best life with the chronic neurologic conditions that they have. In doing so, what we do is wrap care around the patient so that they can find out everything that is available to them in the entire area of their disease.
At the integrated Neuroscience Center at Allegheny Health Network, we want everyone to feel like a VIP and feel like they’ve had a VIP experience. From the minute they walk through the door, we’re going to have facial recognition to check you in, so they don’t have to go to a check-in desk. We’re going to have tracking through the halls to give you wayfinding, so you can find where you need to go on your phone. We want to have a virtualized clinic space, where you walk into the exam room, and in that room you’ll see the clinicians, the doctors, the nurses in person that you’re going to see, but there will also be a camera and a large TV in the room to have virtual visits for the other people you would need to see during that visit that might include people from behavioral health or people from a support group or people from social determinants of health that can add other information for you that you might need. So we want to make your visit a comprehensive visit that’s followed up by your own personal navigator who will make sure that those experiences get followed through and you get the information as you go through your journey with us every step of the way.
When we look at the center, this is really building on a very strong foundation in the neurosciences that dates back to the early 1990s, when we developed very strong clinical programs in every area of neurology and neurosurgery, including cerebrovascular disease, epilepsy, spine surgery, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and many many others. We’ve continued to grow our clinical expertise, and we are state-of-the-art in virtually every area in neurologic disease. What we’re adding now is the component that no one else has — we’re adding the part that brings the rest of the non-strictly-medical options to the patient, to give them that added boost, to, again, live their very best life with their chronic neurologic conditions. That doesn’t get offered anywhere else in an integrated way like we’re going to offer here.
That’s really the key to it all — this is really our mission, that’s why we can do it. This center that we’re building really is going to be a national and international referral center because of the heart of what we’re doing. What we’re doing, again, is what nobody else has ever done before. It is to bring all of the resources to bear for a patient with a chronic neurologic condition that encompasses everything that they would need to know or that their family would need to know to be able to live their best life. People with chronic medical conditions often go into personal bankruptcy or have relationship problems in their families because of their disease, or have financial issues with food insecurity or housing insecurity. People don’t address those kind of things, they just treat the medical problem in many provider organizations. When we start to provide this kind of resource to people and their families, this is going to draw locally, nationally, and internationally. We really believe it is going to be the template of chronic neurologic care in the future across the country.
The following Q&A with additional insights from Dr. Whiting has been edited for length and clarity:
Bill Toland: How will this integrative neuroscience center be different and better than the current model?
Dr. Donald Whiting: There's really nowhere else in the country that does that kind of thing — making it so easy for patients and their families to learn all they need to know, and to live their very best life with their conditions. Whatever condition you have, all the services will come to you. Not only will you get state-of-the-art medical care, you'll also get state-of-the-art wraparound support for all of the other services that you need.
Bill Toland: What’s the value of co-locating all of these medical and social services under one roof?
Dr. Donald Whiting: Having everything in one location really simplifies the patient experience in so many ways. There are a lot of things out there for people with chronic neurologic conditions that they would never know about, or that they would have to search the Internet for. But it's never brought to them in a cohesive, organized way, in a curated way, with a navigator of their very own to help them navigate the system and make sure they get all of those experiences.
Bill Toland: And the need for these kinds of services is growing, correct?
Dr. Whiting: In the U.S., the incidence of neurologic disease, particularly chronic neurologic disease, is increasing. Also, people are living longer. So the severity of these diseases — and the consequences of the diseases — are growing.
Bill Toland: What’s the inspiration behind the new neuroscience hub?
Dr. Donald Whiting: First, it’s inspired by our organization’s Living Health vision, which at the end of the day is about helping people live their best lives. Beyond that, we had a lot of input from one of our patients and donors, Frank Cahouet, along with his family.
He was the former chairman and CEO of Mellon Bank, and he had Parkinson's disease. He'd been around the world looking for the best medical care for his condition — and he came back to us, because he knew about the world-class care that we provide.
But he also knew there was more we could do. Through that experience, he helped us to create AHN’s Cahouet Center for Comprehensive Parkinson’s Care, which places a number of Parkinson’s-specific specialists, therapists, and support services in one location.
In many ways, the new Neuroscience Institute hub grew out of Frank’s initial Cahouet Center vision.
Bill Toland: Patient experience is so important. What’s the experience going to be like at the new neuroscience center?
Dr. Donald Whiting: We want everybody to have a VIP-type experience. We want you to feel like you're the only person that we're caring for, and that we bring everything to you in a very organized way, so that you feel that you are getting all the things you need for your neurologic condition. We also want every patient coming to the neuroscience center to feel like they have a quarterback for their care — someone who's specifically in charge of navigating their experience.
Bill Toland: Having the research team on-site is also a differentiator.
Dr. Donald Whiting: Right. We will be doing groundbreaking clinical research and translational research, of course. As part of a blended health organization, we’ll also be able to integrate cost and outcomes into the way we are delivering care.
Does it make a difference if we add certain resources in a patient's continuum of care? What exact difference does that make? How does that affect their final outcomes and final costs?
With access to patient data and cost-of-care data, we can really start to define the best care pathways for people with chronic neurological conditions, in a manner that is validated through real-world experience and analysis. This is Living Health in a building.
Bill Toland: So this a pretty big deal, then?
Dr. Donald Whiting: I've been in health care at Allegheny General Hospital for 31 years, and I've been part of many, many innovations over those years in my specialty.
But this new neuroscience center gives me the opportunity to work on a project that will change health care in our community, and our country. It's going to make a difference for generations, and I think it’s going to be the template that others around the country are going to emulate as they build out their own neuroscience capabilities.
Bill Toland: Let’s bring this back to the patient and their families — what does this mean to them?
Dr. Donald Whiting: Patients with neurologic conditions, particularly chronic conditions, are faced with a lot of challenges. They're faced with a lot of stressors on a day-to-day basis that most of us don't face — how to get out of bed by themselves in the morning, how to get around the house, how to shop.
A lot of things that we don't even think about are stressors for patients like this, and stressors for spouses and caregivers, too. Now layer the maze of medical care on top of it, and you can see how patients and their caregivers might be easily overwhelmed.
We hope this new building, and the experiences we’ve built into it, will alleviate many of those concerns and stressors. Knowing that they have a place to go, caregivers they trust, and a team that is there with them every step of the way will take some of the load off of their shoulders and help them live their best lives.
Silas: My nineteenth birthday, Valentine’s Day, is when they told me I was epileptic.
Stacey (Silas’ Mom): We really had to figure out how to navigate through this. Because it was tough — he was having a lot of seizures. It’s hard to see your child in pain and you can’t do anything.
Dr. Jody Leonardo: It’s very difficult for patients to navigate health care.
Dr. Timothy Quezada: Patients with neurologic conditions have trouble organizing all of this information and understanding where to go and who to see.
Dr. Andrea Synowiec: I very frequently have patients mention to me that they end up being the one that has to port information back and forth between different specialties.
Anne Marie: Sometimes you’ll feel yourself slipping away, but just stay positive, because at the end, there’s good doctors out there that are willing to help you. Sometimes it might take some time to find them, but they’re there.
Dr. Donald Whiting: The vision for the integrated Neuroscience Center at Allegheny Health Network is a combination of the Living Health vision that we have along with input that we had from one of our patients and donors, Frank Cahouet.
Ann Cahouet: Parkinson’s is implacable. It just keeps coming back for more. A few years after Dad retired from Mellon Bank, he developed some symptoms of Parkinson’s. As his symptoms progressed, and he struggled to find the services that he needed, he came up with the idea of constructing a one-stop shop for people with Parkinson’s, so that they could get anything they needed, and that became the Cahouet Center for Comprehensive Parkinson’s Care.
Dr. Donald Whiting: What he really wanted to do was bring together this very type of situation where patients could come to one location and find out everything they needed to know about their condition and how to live their best life. In our center, we will be treating all forms of neurologic diseases, including epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, ALS, vascular disorders such as stroke or aneurysms.
Dr. Russell Cerejo: Having a one-stop shop where patients and their family members can get access to different health care specialties — neurologists, neurosurgeons, ancillary staff, physical therapists — is the best care for the patient.
Dr. Donald Whiting: Many patients in addition to their chronic neurologic problem have housing issues or a behavioral health issue. These are things we can address.
Dr. Timothy Quezada: That’s really what, at least in my mind, I see as being the greatest potential for it — collaboration and ease of access for patients.
Dr. Andrea Synowiec: The goal is to create a patient-friendly space where the lights aren’t too bright, the noises aren’t too loud, where navigating the space is not too difficult for someone that has difficulty with movement.
Dr. Donald Whiting: From the minute they walk through the door, we’re going to have facial recognition to check you in, so they don’t have to go to a check-in desk. We’re going to have tracking through the halls to give you wayfinding, so you can find where you need to go on your phone.
Ashlee Sedlemeyer: Our vision is also to have the building virtualized to improve ease of access for patients as well. You might have an appointment, and maybe your loved one can’t come with you to that visit, but your loved one can join via telehealth equipment in the exam room. The patient can still feel like they’re supported even if that person couldn’t make it with them to their visit.
Ann Cahouet: Disease like this affects the entire family. And if you can streamline some of these services and make the delivery of these services more efficient, you really boost the well-being of the entire family.
Dr. Russell Cerejo: The exciting part for a physician like me is to be actively involved in having input in building a comprehensive neuroscience center.
Ashlee Sedlemeyer: This is why we’re in health care. It’s exciting because we have been able to develop this from the beginning, not just walked into something that was sort of handed to us. We’ve been able to pull together all of the individuals that we needed to pull together to make this the best center we could possibly create.
Dr. Jody Leonardo: Collaboration is the key to the future. I think in the future patients will not only appreciate it, but I think patients will actually expect it from their physicians.
Dr. Donald Whiting: That’s really the key to it all — this is really our mission, that’s why we can do it. This center that we’re building really is going to be a national and international referral center because of the heart of what we’re doing. What we’re doing, again, is what nobody else has ever done before. It is to bring all of the resources to bear for a patient with a chronic neurologic condition that encompasses everything that they would need to know or that their family would need to know to be able to live their best life. In that way, we’re delivering on the Living Health mission here at Highmark and AHN. We really appreciate your support in helping us make this vision come true.
As Allegheny Health Network’s chief medical officer, Donald Whiting, MD, is AHN’s senior-most clinical executive and the leader of AHN’s medical staff. He is also president of Allegheny Health Network’s physician organization, the Allegheny Clinic, one of the state’s largest physician groups, employing more than 1,400 physicians.
Dr. Whiting is a respected physician-leader who is passionate about changing the way health care is delivered. Regarded as one of the nation’s foremost experts in the use of deep-brain stimulation (DBS) to control the debilitating motor symptoms of patients with Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders, Dr. Whiting has established Allegheny General Hospital as one of the top centers in the world for DBS treatment.
Dr. Whiting has served in numerous physician leadership roles over his two-decade affiliation with AHN. He continues to serve as chair of the AHN Neuroscience Institute, and he had also served as vice-chair of AGH’s Department of Neurosurgery, and co-director of AGH’s Division of Functional Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery Spine Bio-Mechanics Lab.
Dr. Whiting received his undergraduate education at Grinnell College in Iowa, earned an MS in Physiology at Georgetown University, and was awarded his medical degree in 1985 after training at Thomas Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Dr. Whiting completed a neurosurgical residency at The Cleveland Clinic and a neurotrauma fellowship at Allegheny General Hospital.
A professor of Neurosurgery at Drexel University College of Medicine and Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Whiting has been an active member of many of his field’s leading professional and scientific organizations, including the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, and the American Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery.
He has been active with the Parkinson’s Foundation of Western PA and The Cahouet Center for Parkinson’s Disease.
Highmark Health and its subsidiaries and affiliates comprise a national blended health organization that employs more than 42,000 people and serves millions of Americans across the country.
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